On three consecutive weekends TEXSAR was called to aid in searches for missing swimmers along the San Marcos River. The first search started with a call on the evening of August 9 for a 20-year-old male tuber had been missing since that afternoon near Martindale, TX. Units from Chisholm Trail Fire Rescue‘s swift water rescue team, San Marcos SMART Divers, TEXSAR, Maxwell VFD, Martindale Vol. Fire Department, Texas Parks and Wildlife, Caldwell County Sheriffs...
June’s TEXSAR Member of the Month is no stranger to the world of Search & Rescue. TEXSAR K-9 Team Member “Recon” was born in November of 2005, and began training for cadaver recovery at the tender age of eight weeks! A fast learner, Recon was certified by the time she was one year old. Two months later Recon, and her handler Melissa Ellis, deployed to Iraq for nine months to help the United States Army search for soldiers listed as...
On the evening of Sunday, July 13, 2014, several TEXSAR members were deployed to assist the Travis County Sheriff’s Office, Travis County Search and Rescue, and Alamo Area Search and Rescue in the search for Antonio Perea. Mr. Perea left his residence in southeast Travis County early in the morning that Sunday. Due to high temperatures and his known medical issues multiple search assets were enlisted to help in the effort. These assets included search personnel, search management personnel, K9’s, and...
The TEXSAR team was once again called out to Big Bend country in mid-June. This time we were asked to support an on-going investigation by the Brewster County Sheriff’s office and the Social Security Administration. This deployment demonstrated TEXSAR’s agility by deploying personnel from numerous locations across Texas. Personnel in the search came from Midland, San Antonio, Austin, and Hearn meeting up in the west Texas town of Terlingua. The advance team arrived mid-afternoon which allowed them to link...
On June 22, 2014, the Texas Department of Public Safety called the TEXSAR activation line in regard to a missing mountain biker, 30 year old Wesley Andrew Hixson, who was last seen around 10 a.m. on June 21st. Hixson crashed his mountain bike prior to getting separated from his group and may have suffered a head injury. Flower Mound PD and other agencies had conducted a search the night before TEXSAR was contacted. Within 45 minutes of activation 7 GSAR...
On the evening on May 27, 2014 TEXSAR received a request for assistance in searching for a three-year-old girl who had gone missing while playing in a flooded creek near her home in Caldwell County. Within two hours of the initial call, more than two-dozen TEXSAR members and canines were on site searching the swollen creek and the surrounding areas for the missing child. After 6 hours of searching, the TEXSAR Swiftwater Rescue and Canine teams were able to locate and...
In early April TEXSAR members joined forces with resources from Texas Parks and Wildlife, Game Wardens, TMAR, and the Bastrop County Office of Emergency Management in a first of its kind training exercise. The exercise began on the morning of Friday April 11 with reports of a missing aircraft in the Lake Bastrop area. Upon news of the crash, an Incident Management Team with members from all responding agencies was established and search and rescue operations began shortly thereafter. Over the...
FAST 1 on the Gaudalupe On a chilly March weekend 9 TEXSAR members completed their FAST 1 certifications and joined the 21 current certification holders to form the largest volunteer swiftwater rescue team in the state of Texas! The FAST 1 class, taught by TEXSAR’s own Shawn Hohnstreiter and Mark Baumann, was held on the Guadalupe River in New Braunfels, TX. The course started with classroom based learning on Friday evening and then moved to the frigid Guadalupe River where the...
Caldwell County Search On December 12th, 2013, Texas Governor Rick Perry formally requested a Presidential disaster declaration for the State of Texas. This request was made as a result of massive flooding which occurred from October 31st to November 16th, 2013. A state disaster declaration was also made on December 12th. TEXSAR was specifically called out in the disaster declaration for its search and rescue, incident management, resource coordination, and provision of technical specialists during the Caldwell county search phase...
TEXSAR assisted as requested by Caldwell County OEM for a missing person search near Polonia Road on Tuesday November 12, 2013. The person had gone missing during the October 31, 2013 flood event. DPS divers recovered the vehicle on Monday November 11, 2013. Working with Alamo Area SAR and Chisholm Trail VFD, TEXSAR located and recovered the missing person just before noon. The technical water recovery took two hours to complete and all personnel on scene exhibited strong skills. TEXSAR is appreciative...
